Inspirational and motivational keynote speaker
Corporate teams, healthcare events, women’s forums, leadership conferences, and audiences facing change, stress, or personal challenge.
Yavi Madurai is a powerful motivational speaker whose life changed irrevocably in a single moment. At the age of 33, driven, ambitious, and self-described as a control-focused high achiever, she was diagnosed with breast cancer on 14 November 2003. What followed was a sudden collapse of certainty, routine, and future plans, including her long-held dream of becoming a mother.
The weeks after diagnosis became what Yavi describes as a “brown blur” of hospitals, test results, and emotional limbo. Yet within this darkest chapter, a transformation began. Encounters with fellow cancer patients, combined with the stark confrontation of mortality, shifted her perspective from relentless forward motion to conscious presence. Cancer became a wake-up call, forcing her to slow down, reflect, and truly value life.
Despite enduring a partial mastectomy, aggressive chemotherapy, and radiation treatment, Yavi chose positivity as her greatest weapon. She discovered the profound power of the mind-body connection, witnessing firsthand how mindset influences healing, resilience, and recovery. This inner shift marked the rebirth of a new Yavi, one grounded in gratitude, awareness, and intentional living.
It’s strange, how in a single brief moment in time, with only a few words spoken, one’s life can change so completely. Suddenly all you know, trust and rely upon, Yavi Madurai plummeted into the depths of the unknown.
This is precisely what happened to self- professed 33 year old, “control freak”, Yavi Madurai.
On the 14th of November 2003, at 15h02, her doctor uttered those words, “It’s breast cancer”. As life around her continued on as normal, the earth still spinning on its axis, people still going about their daily lives, hers came to a painful, grinding halt.
Hopes, dreams and wishes seemed far away now – especially those of becoming a mother.
What followed in the next two weeks, she can only describe as a “Brown Blur” – A surreal experience of living in the limbo between brown medical buildings, carrying brown envelopes containing test results.
Soon this muted hue seemed to seep into every aspect of her life, staining her days with sorrow. But a bright reprieve was to soon emerge from the depths of this monochromatic existence, coming in the form of another cancer patient.
Yavi Madurai is grateful for every new day and loves getting up in the morning. “I feel alive and know that I am now living in the moment” story acted as a catalyst for Yavi, triggering a metamorphosis within her. And like the seasons bring about the change from caterpillar to butterfly, so the new Yavi was born.
Previously her life had been lived in the fast lane, ambitious, driven and always on the go. She never stopped to appreciate the beauty contained within the tiny moments between life.
But now, Yavi had been presented with the precious gift of choice. It was as if her cancer said, “hey listen, wake up, value it”.
She began to view the world through different lenses, counting her blessings for the things she had previously taken for granted.
She decided that her greatest weapon against cancer would be a positive attitude. Even through the physical and psychological devastation of a partial mastectomy and the aggressive courses of chemotherapy and radiation, her positivity was unwavering.
Yavi Madurai soon discovered the undeniable, yet inexplicable power of the mind-body-connection, as her new attitude began to have a marked effect on her recovery.
But perhaps Yavi Madurai is grateful for every new day and loves getting up in the morning. “I feel alive and know that I am now living in the moment” greatest gift came from the “Moments in Time” project, which made her see her cancer as a gift from God. This knowledge allowed her to find profound meaning, in what was once a seemingly senseless struggle.
Cancer was no longer a burden under which she stumbled and faltered. Rather, it was a second chance at life.
And then, as if by some act of universal synchronicity, Yavi was granted her greatest wish, giving birth to a beautiful baby girl in October, breast cancer month.
This survivor had come full circle, from fighting for her life, to giving new life.
She believes that her cancer not only prepared her for the challenges of motherhood, but also gave her a priceless heirloom, a legacy that could be passed onto her daughter; the fundamental values she learnt, that so wholly transformed her life.
Today, Yavi Madurai is grateful for every new day and loves getting up in the morning. “I feel alive and know that I am now living in the moment”
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